Peta Thornycroft
WAR matriel from South Africa is being supplied to Angola’s Unita movement, according to reports by the Institute for Security Studies. One of the institute’s senior researchers, Jakkie Potgieter, says he has seen military supplies being off- loaded and stored in northern Mozambique for shipment to Unita forces along Angola’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The origin of the matriel is unclear – many of the arms are thought to have come from eastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria, while equipment such as ration packs and medical supplies are South African-made.
The fighting in north-eastern Angola is gathering momentum for what looks like full-scale war, and South Africa’s assistance for Unita is once more the subject of intense concern.
Unita’s army has regrouped and, while its traditional supply route via eastern Zaire may have been disrupted, Potgieter says, it is now being re-armed via Mozambique. He says Unita also uses this route to export its spoils from eastern Angola – diamonds, ivory and what looked like rhino horn.
Potgieter, a former artillery officer in the then South African Defence Force, went on two field trips to Mozambique last November and this March.
His reports say weapons are transported to a Taiwanese prawn-processing plant near Mozambique’s most northerly port, Nacala.
”The small arms and ammunition are sent by Cessna 210s from Nampula [about 50km from Nacala] into Angola. These planes do not have South African registrations,” Potgieter says.
”I also saw DC3s being used, and I have seen one of those planes at a runway near Pretoria.”
Potgieter says he saw the planes being loaded in Nampula last November, when he believes the arms-trafficking began.
He also saw a coaster, with an Indian flag, discharging cargo at Nacala. Boxes of weapons and probably ammunition were stored in grain silos before being airlifted to Unita.
”In the past, South Africa supplied Unita with weapons, and it makes sense for them to order 60mm and 80mm mortars and 106mm anti-tank ammo from this country. Russian ammo doesn’t fit,” Potgieter says.
”Perhaps Unita is being supplied by France, or even Israel. I saw a well-known Israeli weapons dealer in Lunda Sul and Norte in March, but it is more likely the ammo comes through old contacts from South Africa,” he adds.
Potgieter will be releasing two reports on the movement and proliferation of small arms and how Mozambique has become a major route for the supply of weapons in the subcontinent.
Exports of South African armaments have to be authorised by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, chaired by Kader Asmal. The committee authorises arms exports after examining end-user certificates. It said it would never authorise the supply of weapons, ammunition or materials of war to Angola, or to any organisations or individuals.
However, falsification of end-user certificates has been going on for as long as the United Nations has been embargoing weapons supplies.